BACKGROUND Efforts to improve quality of care for patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) are a national priority. To date, there have been few studies that have prospectively evaluated hospital quality improvement (QI) interventions. METHODS AND RESULTS Using hospitals in the National Cardiovascular Data Registry (NCDR) ACTION Registry-GWTG, a cluster randomized trial of the effectiv...

This paper describes the Advanced Forensic Format (AFF), which is designed as an alternative to current proprietary disk image formats. AFF offers two significant benefits. First, it is more flexible because it allows extensive metadata to be stored with images. Second, AFF images consume less disk space than images in other formats (e.g., EnCase images). This paper also describes the Advanced ...

We study the existential closures of several propositional languages L considered recently as target languages for knowledge compilation (KC), namely the incomplete fragments KROM-C, HORN-C, K/H-C, renH-C, AFF, and the corresponding disjunction closures KROM-C[∨], HORN-C[∨], K/H-C[∨], renH-C[∨], and AFF[∨]. We analyze the queries, transformations, expressiveness and succinctness of the resultin...

Endoscopic radial artery harvesting (ERAH) is a feasible and attractive minimally invasive approach for conduit procurement, however there have been concerns about a potential neurological damage occurring at the harvest limb site secondary to injury of the radial nerve during endoscopic harvesting. We present a case of ERAH in which we evaluated intraoperatively the characteristics of radial n...

N o one paying attention to software development recently could miss the raging methodology war. On one side you find formalists, who remain fond of the word " process, " emphasize detailed planning to produce quality products, and aspire to a level of repeatability that evokes manufacturing imagery. On the other side you find agilists, who value " individuals and interactions over processes an...

Foundational philosophical beliefs about mathematics in the mathematical community may have an unappreciated yet profound impact on ethics practice and education, which also affects practice. A historical basis of dominant platonic formalist views are described evaluated, after alternative evidence-based foundation for thought is outlined. The dualistic nature view based intuition then compared...

in the following, i describe the sufi path (tariqa) as a dialectical process which transforms the person through love. i examine the belief system of islamic mystics as a journey involving both creativity and passion. i do so by using a fresh approach, a perspective that has heretofore yet to be applied to the spiritual alchemy of the sufis.